Using PowerChute Personal Edition Software just to monitor UPS

[ken481_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 12/31/2013

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Hi

I have just set up my Back-UPS ES700.

At home i have no deskptop PC i have laptops and notebooks.

I decided to install the PowerChute Personal Edition Software on one of my Laptops.  During the installation there was a process stating "Disabling windows native power management".

I did some reading about this and apparently what this does is that the laptop will !!!!! down when the UPS battery is low, even though the laptop battery is fully charged.

During a power failure i will be running my laptop on its internal battery, yet i would like to be able to monitor the UPS, to see how much battery is left and remaining runtime, since i would be having my printer, modem and router on UPS battery backup.

Apparently this is not possible to do without risking having the laptop shut down by the Powerchute software.

Thus i wonder whether there is a way to keep using windows native power management for my laptop and using the powerchute software to just monitor the UPS? Is this possible?

Also if i disconnect the USB cable from my laptop - in that case will my laptop start using the native windows power management, and thus behave as before, or will the powerchute software still interfear?

Thanks

Kenneth

[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 12/31/2013

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Unfortunately the reason PowerChute disables native UPS support is not only because PowerChute wants to handle the shutdown, but also because native UPS support prevents PowerChute or any other windows program from reliably communicating with the UPS.

Also, even with native UPS support disabled, Windows Power Management will still be active for your built-in battery. So if you disconnect the UPS cable, your computer will shut down when its internal batteries are low, which will occur after the UPS drains its batteries.

To re-enable native UPS support, you can uninstall PowerChute.